Congress plays trump card to consolidate Deswali belt votes

Sunit Dhawan

The election fever has gripped the state with leaders of ruling as well as opposition parties kicking off campaigns to woo voters.

Political leaders are making all-out efforts to reach out to the maximum number of electors. They are trying every trick of the trade like meeting morning-walkers in parks, holding public meetings, rallies and social get-togethers and promising everything under the sun to the voters.  

Ticket aspirants are working hard to impress their political bosses and lobbying for nomination. Makers of flex boards, posters, banners and hoardings are doing a brisk business in the run-up to the elections.

The BJP leadership claims that a wave in favour of the party is sweeping the state and it will repeat its remarkable performance of the recent Lok Sabha elections in Haryana; it bagged all 10 seats.

On the other hand, leaders of the Congress and other opposition parties say that the Assembly elections are an altogether different ball-game and the outcome of the recent Lok Sabha elections will not have much bearing on their results.

Political analysts say that no political party in power, which has served a full term in Haryana, has ever been able to get a clear majority in the Assembly for a second consecutive time since 1985. 

Some political observers say that the installation of former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda as CLP leader and chairman of the party’s state election management committee may prevent a cakewalk by the BJP and make things tough for the ruling party, especially in the Deswali Jat belt.

Of the 15 MLAs who won the 2014 Assembly elections on the Congress ticket, 10 come from the constituencies located in the Deswali Jat belt spread across Rohtak, Jhajjar and Sonepat districts, which are considered Hooda’s stronghold.

Political observers say that besides boosting the morale of Congress workers owing allegiance to the Hooda camp, the pre-election decision has also given a rallying point to the Jat voters of the Deswali belt who were in a state of dilemma amid the general drift towards the BJP.

“Till now, it seemed that Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar was not facing any challenge from any opposition party or leader. But with the Congress leadership handing over the reins of the poll campaign to Hooda, the BJP may not get a walkover in the upcoming elections to the state Assembly,” says Ram Kanwar, another noted political analyst.

He says that Hooda’s installation will consolidate Jat voters in the Deswali belt, though it may have an equal and opposite reaction among non-Jat voters.

Political pundits predict that these Assembly elections have come at a time when the opposition parties are in a state of disarray and the BJP seems to have a distinct advantage over them.

They, however, feel that the major challenge before the BJP poll managers comes from the number of ticket aspirants and those who will not succeed in getting the ticket, as they may then fight the elections as Independent or as the candidates of other parties and harm the prospects of the official nominees of the ruling party.

LS, Assembly poll results can be different

In the given circumstances, it will be interesting to see whether the BJP gets an absolute majority though it seems to be the front-runner, as of now. There are several recent examples where a party, which had performed well in the Lok Sabha elections in a given state, failed miserably in the Assembly elections in the same state. Rajender Sharma, Head of Department of Political Science, MDU